All that is Solid … is a radical blog that seeks to promote a future beyond capital's social universe. "All that is solid melts into air" (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 'The Communist Manifesto', 1848).

Education is often seen as the key agency in international development and poverty reduction. Frequently the emphasis is on the economic and social role of education in development. This book, on the other hand, is unusual in explicitly examining the political role of education in development. In particular, it sets out the theories, evidence and arguments concerning the potential and actual relationships between education and democracy and critically explores the contradictory role of formal education in both supporting and hindering democratic political development. A key theme of the book is the importance of considering the type and nature of the education actually provided and experienced – what goes on inside the ‘black box’ of education? Currently in developing countries and elsewhere this is often at odds with democratic principles but the book also provides many examples of successful democratic practice in schools in developing countries as well as discussing a detailed case study of South Africa where democratic change in education is a key aspect of the policy agenda.

Contents

Preface

CHAPTER 1 Politics, Democracy and Political Development Politics and Democracy; The Idea of Development; Political Development Theory; Democracy as Development; Conclusion

CHAPTER 2 Education, Democracy and Political Development Education and Politics; Education and Democracy; Education and Democracy: is there any evidence?; Conclusion

CHAPTER 5 The Roles of Education in Relation to Political Development: South Africa as a case study Introduction: development goals for education in post-apartheid South Africa; Modernisation or Disorganisation?; Democracy and Peace or Authoritarianism and Violence?; A Democratic Curriculum?; Democratic Structures: school governing bodies; Continuing Non-Democratic Features of South African Education; Contradictions and Tensions in Post-apartheid Education and Development; Conclusion

Recent years have seen a flourishing of new perspectives on the contemporary relevance of Karl Marx’s thought. Very little of this thought has been applied to the relationship between Marx and the work of the Frankfurt School. Instead, with the notable exception of scholars such as Werner Bonefeld and Moishe Postone, much of the work on Marx and the Frankfurt School in the Anglophone world is still approached through paradigms such as the Marxist Humanist discourse of alienation or of scholarly interpretations established by Jurgen Habermas, Martin Jay and Gillian Rose. This stream aims to bring together the best contemporary scholarship offering new perspectives on the relationship between Marx and the Frankfurt School and to consider the contemporary relevance of this relationship.

Possible topics include:

· New assessments of the relationship between Marx and major figures from the Frankfurt School including Horkheimer, Adorno, Benjamin, Marcuse, Habermas and Honneth.

· New assessments of the reception and the influence of the Frankfurt School’s relation to Marx in national and international contexts.

· Importance that the ideas of Marx and the Frankfurt School have for contemporary theories of capital, crisis, social domination, subjectivity, the state, epistemology, class, critical pedagogy, emancipatory politics, and issues of crisis, social reproduction, ecological catastrophe etc.

· Criticisms different Marxisms or critical theories might have of thinkers from the Frankfurt School.

· Criticisms the thinkers from the Frankfurt School might have of Marx and different Marxisms.

· Productive and elective affinities between Marx, figures from the Frankfurt School and other critical theorists such as Bataille, Bensaid, Althusser, Foucault, Open Marxism, Postone, Heinrich, Kurz, Dieter Wolf, Castoriadis, Illyenkov, Bogdanov, etc.

· Productive and elective affinities between Marx, figures from the Frankfurt School and other Marxist schools such as Autonomism, Political Marxism, Open Marxism, communisation and value-form theory.

· Contextualizing the reception of Marx and the Frankfurt School in the work of Martin Jay, Gillian Rose, Jurgen Habermas etc.

If you are interested in presenting a paper or organizing a panel (of up to 3 speakers), please submit a 1-2 page abstract by February 28, 2013 (including name and institutional affiliation). Abstracts should be submitted by email to the stream coordinator Chris O’Kane at: theresonlyonechrisokane@gmail.com

Tuesday, March 5, 2013 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EST) OISE, University of Toronto 252 Bloor St. West

This workshop aims to break down the stigma surrounding activist burnout, offer some constructive solutions for how to get back from the brink of burnout, and tips how to prevent it in yourself and members of your group.

With 1,300 co-operatives operating across the province, the co-op sector represents $30 billion in assets and employs 15,500 people in 400 communities across Ontario. The co-operative business model has a proven track record for creating and retaining jobs nationally and internationally.

Join us to find out about: – Different types of co-ops – Differences between co-ops, private corporations and non-profits – How to incorporate a co-operative – Benefits and Challenges of co-ops forms – Survival rate of co-ops compared to other business – Sector opportunities for co-op development – Raising capital using an Offering Statement

Cost: $140 + HST. Each additional participant from the same organization will receive a $15 discount, as will those who register for more than one workshop. Student rate available. Refreshments, tea and coffee served, but lunch not included.

Adult Learning is a practitioner-oriented journal sponsored by the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) and published by SAGE. The journal publishes empirical research and conceptual papers for researchers and practitioners that approach practice issues with a problem-solving emphasis. The audience includes those who design, manage, teach, and evaluate programs of adult and continuing education. http://alx.sagepub.com/

Refereed articles: The editors are very interested in publishing empirical research and conceptual papers and are actively soliciting manuscripts of 4,000-4,500 words. Submit manuscripts to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/al and inquiries to the Editor, Mary Alfred, at adultlearning@tamu.edu

Special issues: The editors welcome your suggestions for special issues. Past special issues are varied and include workforce education, mentoring, older adult learners, adult literacy, staff development, adult learners with disabilities, instructional technology, intercultural education, learning to learn, and the philosophy of adult education. Special issue editors work with authors on the content and form of manuscripts. Submit special issue inquiries and proposals to the Editor, Mary Alfred, at adultlearning@tamu.edu

Urge our political leaders to allow low-income Ontarians to Earn More, Keep More and have benefits Restored!

Ontario is facing an historic opportunity to invest in poverty reduction efforts in the 2013 provincial budget.

The 25in5 Network for Poverty Reduction is urging all Ontario’s political parties to make minority government work for low-income Ontarians – by allowing people to earn more from employment, keep more assets and child support payments while simultaneously restoring the benefits that have been frozen or eliminated over time.

All political parties have made social assistance reform and poverty reduction efforts a priority in this year’s budget. Reducing and eliminating poverty requires government to remove the barriers that trap people in poverty in our province.

You can show your support by sending an e-postcard to Ontario’s political leaders, and by visiting 25in5’s information pages to learn more.

The lively political and personal worlds of early 20th century anarchists come to life by researcher Debbie Rose. She focuses on a fascinating collection of more than a thousand letters and postcards belonging to her great-great uncle Leon Malmed of Albany, New York who was one of the followers and lovers of the high profile activist, feminist pioneer and writer-lecturer Emma Goldman.

The presentation provides a glimpse into the development of a young man’s thoughts and feelings as he responds to the political climate of his time to become an outspoken proponent of anarchist philosophy. Later, as he travels with Emma Goldman on a speaking tour across North America, the letters reveal the tension between Malmed and his wife over his anarchist activities and his intimate relationship with Goldman who, banned from the U.S., spent her last years in Toronto. Debbie is working with translators to bring the correspondence in Yiddish into a larger public realm.

Sue Goldstein, a local activist and organizer, will introduce the talk.

The United Jewish People’s Order (UJPO) is an independent, socialist-oriented, secular cultural and educational organization with branches in Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver, and members in Montreal and other Canadian centres.

Beit Zatoun is a cultural centre, gallery and community meeting space that promotes the interplay of art, culture and politics to explore issues of social justice and human rights, both locally and internationally.

A collaboration of: – Centre for Research on Work & Society – Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy – Work & Labour Studies Program, LAPS – Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Gender & Work

Twenty-two Porter Airlines fuel technicians have been on strike in Toronto since January 10, while the St. Francis Xavier university teachers have been on strike since January 28. The Porter workers are represented by COPE local 343 and the teachers by the St.FX Association of University Teachers.

The striking workers at Porter have been getting picket line support. The fuel technicians are striking for better wages (average annual salaries are only $28,000) and, critically, improving health in safety in what is described as “atrocious working conditions.” They are also calling upon all supporters NOT to fly Porter Airlines.

Meanwhile, posts on Facebook and Twitter report inspiring acts of solidarity by other workers in Antigonish. The building trades unions have refused to cross picket lines, leaving a campus construction site idle. Postal workers also refused to cross one picket line to deliver the Globe and Mail and Chronicle Herald newspapers.

With these strikes and solidarity actions, as with any other, Rankandfile.ca welcomes readers to send in reports for publication.

This paper argues that new financing is required over and above existing sources of revenue to support home care and long-term care now and in

future. A robust system of home care and long-term care will necessarily involve improvements to and efficiencies within the existing health care system. But innovations to the acute care side of the equation will resolve only part of the financing challenge for long-term care. The community components of health care need more money if they are to meet current and future demands – in both quality and quantity of service.

The financing options proposed in this paper include public insurance, individual savings accounts and new fiscal arrangements, such as tax-assisted incentives or special loan arrangements. All the proposals require further study in order to determine their cost implications and administrative feasibility. The purpose of putting forward these options is to contribute to the financing conversation, which itself is in desperate need of enrichment.

CONTRARIAN COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY: A REVIEW OF RICHARD SEYMOUR’S “UNHITCHED: THE TRIAL OF CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS”

By Jordy Cummings, Basics News

Richard Seymour’s “Unhitched”, a slim and scathing denunciation of turncoat scoundrel Christopher Hitchens is a thoroughly satisfying and politically important book by one of the few remaining great radical left journalists. I have to hand it to Seymour – this book was a cathartic read. No one uses words like “yawp”, let alone carefully modulated jazz-like prose, end a subsection with a cacophony of righteous snark, veer over to an allegory, and then back to yawping. No one that is, but Richard “Lenin’s Tomb” (http://www.leninology.com) Seymour.

Hyatt is at it again. Last week The Funders for LGBTQ Issues pulled their conference from a Hyatt hotel in New Mexico, but now Hyatt wants to charge them a $40,000 penalty, far more than the retreat was originally going to cost.

Tell Hyatt to stop intimidating LGBTQ customers who want to honor the boycott!

Hyatt is one of the biggest corporate bullies around, so this kind of behavior is nothing new. You’ve seen so time and

Marxism Against Postmodernism in Educational Theory

again as Hyatt workers across the country stand up for themselves and are challenged at every turn.

The only thing that’s different now is that Hyatt isn’t content to silence workers who speak out against its unfair practices, it’s targeting consumers. We need to come together now and show Hyatt that it can’t escape criticism by bullying people who speak out.

The glaring contrast between employment numbers, and the unemployment rate, was highlighted by last week’s labour force numbers from Statistics Canada (capably dissected elsewhere on this blog by Angella MacEwan).

Paid employment (i.e. employees) declined by 46,000. Total employment (including self-employment) fell by 22,000. Yet the unemployment rate fell to 7 per cent — its lowest level since late 2008.

Fewer people were working, yet the unemployment rate declined. What gives?

The Centre for the Study of Education and Work (CSEW) brings together educators from university, union, and community settings to understand and enrich the often-undervalued informal and formal learning of working people. We develop research and teaching programs at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (UofT) that strengthen feminist, anti-racist, labour movement, and working-class perspectives on learning and work.

Our major project is APCOL: Anti-Poverty Community Organizing and Learning. This five-year project (2009-2013), funded by SSHRC-CURA, brings academics and activists together in a collaborative effort to evaluate how organizations approach issues and campaigns and use popular education. For more information about this project, visit http://www.apcol.ca

Haymarket Books is proud to announce the publication of the five latest titles in the Studies in Critical Social Science Book Series:Labor Regime Changes in the Twenty-First Century by Tom BrassThe Age of Knowledge by James Dziash and Henry EtzkowitzNeoliberalism and National Culture by Cory BladThe Cuban Revolution as Socialist Human Development by Henry Veltmeyer and Mark RushtonThe Entropy of Capitalism by Robert Biel

This peer-reviewed book series, through the publication of original manuscripts and edited volumes, offers insights into the reality of 21st century Neoliberalism by exploring the content and consequences of power relationships under capitalism, by considering the spaces of opposition and resistance to these changes, and by articulating capitalism with other systems of power and domination—for example race, gender, culture—that have been defining our new age. For a full list of titles in the series visit www.haymarketbooks.org/category/scss-series

“Tom Brass, one of the United Kingdom’s leading Marxist scholars has written a brilliant, theoretically informed, comprehensive critique of past and present, Marxist and non-Marxist writers of capitalist labor regimes and puts forth an alternative theoretical-conceptual framework”

— James Petras, Science and Society

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This volume assesses the validity, through current economic developments, of different historical interpretations linking capitalism, unfreedom, and primitive accumulation. Conventional wisdom holds that Marxism takes its lead from Smith and others in viewing capitalism as based on free labor. Challenging this, it is argued that Marxism fully accepts the need, in certain contexts, for capital to exploit unfree labor.

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Released January 2013 Trade Paper $28.00 | 314 pages | ISBN: 9781608462407 Click to buy and for more details: http://goo.gl/9wU5E

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THE AGE OF KNOWLEDGE

The Dynamics of Universities, Knowledge, and Society

BY James Dziash and Henry Etzkowitz

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This title emphasizes that the ongoing transformations of knowledge, both within universities and for society more generally, must be understood as a reflection of the larger changes in the constitutive social structures within which they are invariably produced, translated and reproduced. As the development of knowledge continues to be implicated in the habitual practices of the human social enterprise, visualizing these alterations requires the consideration of the social and materialistic contexts informing these transformations. This is necessary because the process of globalization has not only created new challenges for societies but has also unleashed a new political economy of knowledge within which different institutions mus re-affirm their identity and place.

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Released January 2013 Trade Paper $28.00 | 342 pages | ISBN: 9781608462414 Click to buy and for more details: http://goo.gl/1H9un

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NEOLIBERALISM AND NATIONAL CULTURE

State-Building and Legitimacy in Canada and Québec

BY Cory Blad

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This book argues that despite popular claims to the contrary, global capitalism requires state institutional authority, but the legitimation of this authority is incrasingly tied to cultural rather than economic means. Canada and Québec are presented as examples of how neoliberal states achieve integration wile relying on cultural legitimation to maintain social policies that mitigate social changes.

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Released January 2013 Trade Paper $28.00 | 270 pages | ISBN: 9781608462438 Click to buy and for more details: http://goo.gl/cc1p4

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THE CUBAN REVOLUTION AS SOCIALIST HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

BY Henry Veltmeyer and Mark Rushton

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This re-reading of the Cuban Revolution from the perspective of socialist-humanism engages unresolved issues in the notion of human development popularized by the United Nations Development Programme. UNDP and other agencies of international cooperation for devleopment give a human face to ta capitalist development process that is anything but humane. This titles argues that understanding Cuba provides an alternative model.

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Released January 2013 Trade Paper $28.00 | 368 pages | ISBN: 9781608462445 Click to buy and for more details: http://goo.gl/qDp6X

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THE ENTROPY OF CAPITALISM

BY Robert Biel

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Drawing on his experience in international systems and low-input agriculture, Biel explores the interactions of social and physical systems. In the process revealing the early twenty-first century as a period when capitalism starts parasiting on the chaos it itself creates, notably in the link between the two sides of imperialism: militarism (the ‘war on terror’) and speculative fiance capital.

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Released January 2013 Trade Paper $28.00 | 390 pages | ISBN: 9781608462421 Click to buy and for more details: http://goo.gl/fKFr7

· All proposals will be subjected to peer-reviews. Selected papers from the conference will be considered for extended version publication in the supporting journals.

EXHIBITION

Visual arts exhibition will be opened and painting, sculpture and ceramic works will be exhibited in 2nd World Conference on Design, Arts and Education. Works of the exhibition will be published in “DAE-2013 Exhibition Catalogue” which is in A4 size, colourful, glazed paper with ISBN number. Catalogues will be given during the conference. Detailed information will be posted on the website on January 25, 2013.

DAE-2012 PAPERS

Procedia Social and Behavioural Sciences Journal

Volume 51, Pages 1-1108 (2012)

The World Conference on Design, Arts and Education

(DAE-2012), May 1-3, 2012, Antalya, Turkey

Edited by Professor Dr. Ays e Çakýr Ilhan

ACCOMMODATION

We will special agreement with the Hotel for the conference participants only. We will announce at the conference web site in a short time.

Deadlines & Important Dates

· Abstract Submissions* March 15, 2013 (Extended)

· Full Paper Submissions April 13, 2013 (Extended)

· Early Hotel Reservation March 15, 2013

· Early Registration April 03, 2013 (Extended)

· Camera-ready for Elsevier June 01, 2013

· Conference Dates May 09-11, 2013

* After the submission date, the authors of abstracts will be notified in four day.

Supporting Journals

Authors of selected articles are welcomed to submit extended version for publication in regular issues of the following reputed journals, in addition to publication in Procedia-Social and Behavioural Journal. New copyright forms must also be signed and delivered to the appropriate journal.

The journals that have been confirmed so far (further replies are expected in following days)

· International Journal of Art & Design Education, (Indexed in SSCI)

· British Journal of Music Education, (Indexed in SSCI)

· Journal of Psychology of Music, (Indexed in SSCI)

· Asia Pacific Education Review, (Indexed in SSCI)

· Perspectives in Education (Indexed in SSCI)

· Cypriot Journal of Educational Sciences

· International Journal of Learning and Teaching (Special issue)

· Contemporary Education Research Journal (Special issue)

· Global Journal of Arts Education(Special issue)

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

The abstracts can be one-page long (200-300 words). The abstract include Problem Statement, Purpose of Study, Methods, Findings and Results, and Conclusions and Recommendations (These elements may need some adaptation in the case of discussion papers: Background, Purpose of Study, Sources of Evidence, Main Argument, and Conclusions). Please note that some elements are optional in abstracts.

Researchers who are unable to resolve the funding issue concerning the conference expenses will be provided with an alternative approach for participation, namely, Virtual Online Presentation. Those who would like to make their presentations online from their home countries will also be awarded with a certificate and their papers will be considered for publications similar to other participants as if they were present physically. Those who would like to make use of the Virtual Online Presentation facility will be requested to send their virtual posters or other soft copy materials such as power point presentations to the secretariat. In addition, these participants who would prefer to make use of the Virtual Online Presentation facility may also contribute to the conference through video conferencing.

For more information please visit the conference official web site: http://www.artsedu.org

Promote civic engagement and participation of diverse, low income communities in the Greater Toronto Area.

Participatory workshops will focus on:

– Imperative of engagement in diverse low income communities – Building civic movements and leaders – Web-based methodologies for community organizing – Models for mobilizing diverse low income communities

This will be a lively learning exchange. We’ll showcase local leadership success stories and give you plenty of opportunities to connect with and learn from others. You’ll leave with ideas and practical information to build civic literacy and promote engagement and participation in your community.

Fresh on the heels of the BC provincial election, this workshop brings together activists and academics to consider the past, present and future of social democracy and BC’s working class. It seeks to provide context to current debates and strategies over labour laws, social programs and the balance of power in the workplace and communities.

LEADERSHIP, HIGHER AND ADULT EDUCATION (OISE-UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO) RESEARCH SMORGASBORD + SOCIAL

February 27 12-2pm OISE, Room 12-199 252 Bloor St. West, Toronto

Come hear faculty from Adult Ed/Community Development, Ed Admin and Higher Ed programs present the findings from research in which they are engaged and have published, or are in the process of publishing. Social to follow. Light refreshments will be served.

– Peter Dietsche: “A perfect storm: public policy, access and student success in ontario colleges” – Glen Jones: “Academic careers and national systems of higher education” – Linda Muzzin: “Mapping curriculum and equity in Canada’s community colleges” – Shahrzad Mojab: “Re-organization of educational services and social services in response to policy mandates emphasizing the security and securitization of youth” – Jean-Paul Restoule: “Deepening knowledge and enhancing instruction through incorporation of indigenous worldviews in initial teacher education program at OISE” – Kiran Mirchandani: “Phone clones: Identity, learning and work in the international call centre system with special attention to India” – Jim Ryan: “The micropolitics of social justice leadership in organizations” – Joe Flessa: “Streaming in Ontario schools” – Carol Campbell: “Leading with evidence for educational improvement through education system change, professional capacity and student learning”

“Class Struggles in Crisis: from Walmart to the State” with Kevin Doogan, Arun Gupta, Jane Hardy, and Charles Post.

– Kevin Doogan is professor in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. – Arun Gupta is a co-founder of The Indypendent and The Occupied Wall Street Journal. – Jane Hardy is a professor in the Business School at the University of Hertfordshire – Charles Post is a professor of Sociology at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York (CUNY).

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BOOK LAUNCH: BOOM, BUST AND CRISIS Labour, Corporate Power and Politics in Canada

We will be having a discussion with Gautam Mody, General Secretary of the New Trade Union Initiative (http://ntui.org.in/), an exciting union in India which in two decades has built a democratic organization that now represents around 1.5 million workers with a special emphasis on informal workers.

CAMPUS FIGHTBACKS IN THE AGE OF AUSTERITY: LEARNING FROM QUEBEC STUDENTS

by Xavier Lafrance and Alan Sears, The Bullet

The 2012 Quebec student strikes delivered one of the few victories we have seen in anti-austerity struggles in the Canadian state. The mobilization, which at its high point saw over 300,000 students on limited or unlimited strike, and demonstrations of hundreds of thousands, was a crucial highpoint that has a great deal to teach radicals. The attempted clampdown by the Jean Charest government through Bill 78 that attempted to outlaw the movement, unleashed a new and innovative round of resistance including the casseroles night marches.

“WHOSE STREETS? OUR STREETS!”: REFLECTIONS ON THE WORLD’S LARGEST DEMONSTRATION, TEN YEARS LATER

by Sarah Grey and Leo Zeilig, MRzine

February 15, 2003, Sarah, New York:

The wind that whips down the avenues is bitterly cold, but that doesn’t stop us from protesting the drive to war in Iraq. People from all over the city and the Northeast — young and old, hardened activists and first-time protestors — have converged on Manhattan, where the wounds of 9/11 are still gaping, to tell our unelected president NO to war on Iraq.

VIDEO – BOOK LAUNCH: TOWARD THE UNITED FRONT Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922

Toronto — 3 February 2013.

Moderated by Abbie Bakan. Panel discussion with:

– John Riddell is the translator and editor of this book. He maintains a blog at http://www.johnriddell.wordpress.com – David McNally teaches Political Science at York University, Toronto, and is the author of “Monsters of the Market: Zombies, Vampires and Global Capitalism” – Greg Albo teaches Political Economy at the Department of Political Science, York University. He is the co-editor of “Empire’s Ally: Canada and the War in Afghanistan” – Suzanne Weiss is a Toronto writer, active in Palestinian, Latin American solidarity and work for climate justice – Paul Kellogg teaches Political Economy at Athabasca University

Upping The Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action is a radical journal published twice a year by a pan-Canadian collective of activists and organizers. We are dedicated to publishing radical theory and analysis about struggles against capitalism, imperialism, and all forms of oppression.

Upping The Anti believes that praxis – the dialectical combination of theory and practice – is integral to the building of strong revolutionary movements. We work with activists and thinkers in these movements to distil the lessons learned from struggle. We prioritize reflection which leads to political clarification, summation, and synthesis.

We are currently looking for story ideas for ISSUE FIFTEEN, which will be released in June 2013. If you have an idea for a story you would like to see published in our journal, please send us a one-page pitch by Thursday, February 28, 2013. In addition to the pitch, please submit a short writing sample (max 1,000 words).

In your pitch, please provide a brief description of the topic of your proposed investigation, your main questions, an account of how you will address these questions, as well as a brief biographical note.

Before submitting a pitch, we encourage you to read back issues in order to familiarize yourself with the kind of writing that we publish. We also encourage you to have a look at the Upping The Anti submission guide, which can be downloaded at http://uppingtheanti.org.

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ONTARIO WORKERS NEED URGENT PROTECTION FROM THE MINISTRY OF LABOUR

from the Workers’ Action Centre

New Minister of Labour, Yasir Naqvi, has an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of thousands of Ontario workers by taking immediate action to address wage theft.

In December 2012, people from across Ontario responded to our call for action for better conditions for workers. Over 12 days, more than 500 messages were sent to the Minister of Labour calling for stronger protections for workers in Ontario.

The Centre for the Study of Education and Work (CSEW) brings together educators from university, union, and community settings to understand and enrich the often-undervalued informal and formal learning of working people. We develop research and teaching programs at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (UofT) that strengthen feminist, anti-racist, labour movement, and working-class perspectives on learning and work.

Our major project is APCOL: Anti-Poverty Community Organizing and Learning. This five-year project (2009-2013), funded by SSHRC-CURA, brings academics and activists together in a collaborative effort to evaluate how organizations approach issues and campaigns and use popular education. For more information about this project, visit http://www.apcol.ca

Low-fee private schooling represents a point of heated debate in the international policy context of Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals. While on the one hand there is an increased push for free and universal access with assumed State responsibility, reports on the mushrooming of private schools targeting socially and economically disadvantaged groups in a range of developing countries, particularly across Africa and Asia, have emerged over the last decade. Low-fee private schooling has, thus, become a provocative and illuminating area of research and policy interest on the impacts of privatisation and its different forms in developing countries.

This edited volume aims to add to the growing literature on low-fee private schooling by presenting seven studies in five countries (Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan), and is bookended by chapters analysing some of the evidence and debates on the topic thus far.

The book presents research findings from studies across three levels of analysis that have proven relevant in the study of low-fee private schooling: the household, school and state. Chapters address household schooling choice behaviours regarding low-fee private and competing sectors; the management, operation and relative quality of low-fee private schools; and changes to the regulatory frameworks governing low-fee private schools, and the impact of low-fee private schools on those frameworks.

The book does not seek to provide definitive answers since, as an emerging and evolving area of study, this would be premature. Instead, it aims to call attention to the need for further systematic research on low-fee private schooling, and to open up the debate by presenting studies that use a range of methods and, owing to the context specificity of the issue, draw different conclusions. The hope is that these studies may serve as springboards to further research.

Finally, the book does not aim to snuff out the political and vociferous debate surrounding low-fee private schooling and private provision more broadly, or to erase the complications that abound in conducting research in this area, but to engage with them.

The hope is that as the 2015 target date for Education for All and Millennium Development Goals approaches, this book may help us get closer to answering the question: do low-fee private schools aggravate equity or mitigate disadvantage?

HISTORICAL MATERIALISM BOOK SERIES EXPANDS FOR 2013: FORTHCOMING VOLUMES

2013 will see significant growth for the Historical Materialism Book Series, with substantial and ground-breaking books in all areas of Marxist theory. The aim of the series is to publish important theoretical contributions as the basis for vigorous intellectual debate and exchange on the left. We are convinced that, in a time of capitalist crisis and resurgent interest in critical Marxist ideas, a project of this kind can make an important contribution to the revitalisation of critical politics and intellectual culture.

The peer-reviewed series publishes original monographs, translated texts and reprints of ‘classics’ across the bounds of academic disciplinary agendas, and across the divisions of the left. The series is particularly concerned to encourage the internationalisation of Marxist debate, and aims to translate significant studies from beyond the English speaking world. We have previously published important studies of Marxist thinkers, key collections of sources from the socialist movement, works of philosophy, history and literary criticism, as well as political and economic studies.

Future publication plans include texts in the fields of cultural and aesthetic theory, sociology and geography. We are also preparing ambitious multi-volume collections of the works of Marxists as diverse as György Lukács, Ernst Bloch, Yevgeni Preobrazhensky, Isaac Illich Rubin, Andreu Nin, Alexander Bogdanov, and Roman Rosdolsky – too long unavailable in English – as well as new translations of texts by Marx and Trotsky. Please contact us if you would be interested in collaborating in such projects.

This year also sees Historical Materialism embark upon an exciting new partnership with Aakar Books, who will be publishing some among our most popular titles in economic format for the South Asian market. See here for a list of planned volumes, or email aakarbooks@gmail.com for more details.

Below appears a list of some of the upcoming titles from the Historical Materialism Book Series:

Wade Matthews – International of the Imagination. The New Left, National Identity and the Break-Up of Britain

Álvaro García Linera – Plebeian Power

Roland Boer – In the Vale of Tears: Marxism and Theology Vol. V

Marcel van der Linden and Karl Heinz Roth (eds.) – Beyond Marx

Karl Korsch – Karl Marx

Stavros Tombazos – Time and Capital

Philippe Bourrinet – The Dutch and German Communist Left

Gregor Benton – Chinese Trotskyism

Christoph Henning – Philosophy after Marx

Alessandro Carlucci – Gramsci and Linguistics

Marcos del Roio – Gramsci and the United Front

Jan Rehmann – Ideology Theory

Roberto Finelli – A Failed Parricide

We are sure that you will agree that our Marxist publishing project is a necessary and timely one, and we invite your participation in the Historical Materialism Book Series. Indeed, as well as looking forward to publishing the above books and over a hundred other texts planned for coming years, we are always interested in suggested titles in all areas of Marxist theory. Please see here for details on how to make a proposal, or email the editors at historicalmaterialism@soas.ac.uk.

Since we are not a commercial operation, we also welcome the financial support of our readers and sympathisers, helping us further to expand our work. We welcome sponsorships of individual titles (particularly translations), donations to the series, and regular contributions via standing orders.

I would like to invite opinion on an issue of immediate importance to all of us. In recent weeks I have been travelling around the UK attending university meetings to discuss my publications (Social Sciences Directory and Humanities Directory), open access issues generally and their response to the April 1st deadline for implementation of the new mandate. On practical issues, such as how open access funds are going to be administered, I have not met anybody yet that has got its house in order, which seems extraordinary since the RCUK decision was made over eight months ago and we are now six weeks to the start.

Whilst librarians are consistent and vocal supporters of reform (I was recently told that Social Sciences Directory is an ‘exemplar’ of a progressive publishing solution), the concerns of academics come up time and again. Researchers’ lack of understanding and refusal to accept either the need for change, or the new realities for UK research output in the light of Finch, is proving to be far more intractable than the supposedly entrenched resistance of publishing groups (which, whilst fearful that they will not be able to replicate subscription revenues from replacement article fees are already adapting and creating myriad new models).

Although the data is now quite old (from 2009) it does not fundamentally alter the fact that, in many subject areas, there are not yet OA journals with impact factors.
So here’s the rub. How are librarians going to make recommendations about reconciling this problem? This would be a valuable discussion and I welcome comments.

ANARCHISTS, MARXISTS, AND NATIONALISTS IN THE COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL WORLD, 1870s-1940s: ANTAGONISMS, SOLIDARITIES, AND SYNTHESES

CALL FOR PAPERS

EUROPEAN SOCIAL SCIENCE HISTORY CONFERENCE (ESSHC) 2013

From its inception in the First International, the anarchist and syndicalist movement played a significant role in the colonial and post-colonial world as an influential force in revolutionary, national liberation, and anti-imperialist movements. While this role has received increasing attention in a growing scholarship, the literature remains underdeveloped and rather limited. The intersections between anarchism and syndicalism, and other Left oppositional currents, including Marxist and nationalist movements, are understudied and lack systematic examination especially with respect to the global South. Such intersections provide an important index of anarchist and syndicalist influence by drawing attention to their role in larger coalitions as well as their imprint on other movements and ideologies; conversely, to properly understand the history of other Left and labor currents it is necessary to take into account their interactions with anarchism and syndicalism. These interactions assumed a wide range of forms: although historical antagonisms between anarchism and Marxism often shaped their relations, there were also many instances of solidarity and collaboration; while anarchism generally opposed nationalism in principle, it cooperated with a surprising number of nationalist movements; finally, anarchism and syndicalism contributed key elements to a broad spectrum of oppositional currents that reflected syncretic ideologies, organizational forms, and practices.

We invite papers that examine examples of antagonisms, solidarities, and syntheses between anarchism and syndicalism on one hand, and Marxist and nationalist currents on the other. The papers should address historical movements, rather than intellectual history, narrowly conceived; they should analyze intersections, not parallels or apparent similarities between different currents; and explore the complex relations and overlaps between anarchist, Marxist, and nationalist movements. Case studies should focus on the colonial and post-colonial world (Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean).

You will learn things such as: – How to make your union’s content go viral online – How to grow your Facebook Pages – How to create effective petition pages – How to best use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – How to get your issue to the top of Google

The first module comes out on February 18th and you can complete the course at your own pace.

Passage of so-called “right-to-work” legislation in Michigan, the birthplace of industrial unionism, has sent shockwaves across both sides of our border. Conservative MPs are planning the same here, and Ontario Tory leader Tim Hudak has made it part of his election platform. Canadians are about to experience an unprecedented level of aggression against the very foundations of collective bargaining. The entire labour movement is poised to take on this immediate threat.

The Toronto and York District Labour Council will be launching a massive internal union organizing campaign on Saturday March 2nd – registration form is at http://www.labourcouncil.ca

Join us to explore: -The story of the Ontario Natural Food Co-op, a 37-year-old social enterprise that proactively brings to market natural, organic and local foods within a co-operative network – The new wave of food and farming co-operatives sprouting up across Ontario, and the corresponding emergence and development of the Local Organic Food Co-ops Network – The sustainability and resilience of the co-operative model in the current economy, as it contributes to strong local economies, environmental stewardship, and community-sufficiency

Bring your lunch and a mug. Water, coffee, tea, and fresh-baked snacks from Lemon & Allspice will be provided.

(Directions: take River Street north from Dundas or south from Gerrard St. E., walk east on Oak St. and look for stairs and a ramp on the right side, just past the convenience store. Community Room at bottom of stairs.)

Film screening and fundraising dinner. The definitive film record of the 1917 Russian Revolution. This film premiered on March 6, 1937, at the Filmarte Theatre in New York City, after nine years in the making. At that time, the New York Times praised Tsar to Lenin as “an important work – a complete, impartial and intelligent film history of the Russian revolution.” The critic of the New York Post described the film as the “most important moving picture I ever saw in my life…the most vital and absorbing film, to my mind, in the history of the movies.” With the onset of the Cold War this film was denied the audience it should have received. But as the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution approaches, it is being rediscovered. Come to this special film screening and fundraising dinner for http://www.socialist.ca

In December, it was predicted that outgoing finance minister Dwight Duncan would reduce his deficit forecast just before his departure (for Bay Street). Duncan had somehow estimated in his fall economic statement that the 2012-3 deficit would be $14.4 billion, i.e. higher than the 2011-12 deficit — and even higher than the 2010-11 deficit!

Sure enough, Duncan lopped another $2.5 billion off the deficit in January.

Our Times’ ever-popular annual women’s issue is heading to press soon, cutting through the noise and spin of the powers that be with the sharp, wise and sincere voices of women standing strong and making change.

We’ll be launching our three-part series, Leadership, Feminism and Equality in Canadian Unions, in which we’ll share the collective wisdom of 50 women from across Canada.

You’ll also hear from Halifax Idle No More organizer Marina Young, a Mi’kmaq activist speaking out about Indigenous and Canadian issues and efforts to shape the future of First Nations communities and the country as a whole.

We’ll also hear a parent’s point of view on the teachers’ fight against Bill 115, and though it may have been repealed, its impacts in Ontario and the fight for collective bargaining continue.

We’ll also check in with K-12 education support staff in Edmonton. And because children “shouldn’t just be for rich families,” Sharon Gregson, a spokesperson for the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C., as well as unionists in B.C. and across Canada fills us in on their steadfast campaign for universal child care.

This is just a sampling of the stories in this issue. It’s going to be a great one. Please join us in celebrating and supporting women workers!

If you would like to order extra copies of this issue (more than 20) as an education resource for your workshops, conferences or schools, please place your order with our business manager by February 19.

I’ve posted a new website, http://www.OurLifeAtWork.com, where working people can tell their story. On the site now are fifteen stories written by electricians, roofers, rail workers, a flight attendant, a nursing home organizer, and workers at factory bakeries and a meatpacking plant among others. They were written in the 1990s by mostly labor leaders for a class in the Anthropology of Work I taught for five years in the college degree program of the George Meany Center for Labor Studies in Silver Spring, Maryland. Take a look.

What makes these stories so compelling is that the descriptions of occupations and workplaces are from their own point of view, having sometimes spent some twenty years or more on the job. They write about starting out on the job, a day at work, how the work really gets done, gaining respect on the job, the informal rules, the job pecking order, friendships, teamwork, conflicts, accidents, the emerging role of women, race, and organizing as they and their fellow workers experienced it all.

I hope you will make use of the site and encourage people to write their own stories. If you are involved in this area, or know of others who are, please let me know. OurLifeAtWork.com is a work-in-progress. How can I make it better? Thanks.

Immigrants are hard workers; they have to be. They are usually economic refugees, victims of wars, both physical wars and trade wars. The Irish came to England and to the US in droves to escape poverty in their homeland, a poverty that was a product of occupation and the theft of their land. As a person of English origin living in California, I have often compared the Irish immigrants to Britain to our Mexican and other Latino immigrants who are also economic migrants, forced to leave their homes and families to stave off starvation. NAFTA drove more than a million Mexican farmers from their subsistence farms; many came up here. It’s hard to compete with Con Agra or Monsanto when it comes to agricultural production, the US small farmer can testify to that.

Striking workers at the Vio.Me factory in Thessaloniki, Greece who have not been paid since May 2011 have decided to restart production under workers’ control on 12 February 2013.

With unemployment climbing to 30%, workers’ income reaching zero, sick and tired of big words, promises and more taxes, unpaid since May 2011 and currently withholding their labour, with the factory abandoned by the employers, the workers of Vio.Me, by decision of their general assembly declare their determination not to fall prey to a condition of perpetual unemployment, but instead to struggle to take the factory in their own hands and operate it themselves.

Several months ago I was approached by a group of young workers at Porter Fixed Based Operations (FBO) looking for a union to represent them as they had serious concerns around health and safety. The stories they recounted of flagrant health and safety violations and unsafe working conditions were appalling.

Progressive Metrics is a fundraising, communications and political consulting agency. We specialize in assisting trade unions, worker organizations, grassroots campaigns, political advocacy organizations and progressive candidates to work for social change.

Progressive Metrics is currently seeking telephone representatives for its Toronto-based call centre.

Primary responsibilities are fundraising for various political advocacy organizations, NGO’s, and progressive political parties and candidates.

Canadian Office & Professional Employees Union (COPE), Local 397 requires an experienced person to be responsible for all aspects of Labour Relations with various employers throughout the Local’s jurisdiction.

Qualifications: – Ability to promote and support the principles of Trade Unionism. – Relevant post secondary education and/or extensive labour relations work-related experience (graduate of a Labour Studies program would be an asset). – Demonstrated extensive experience in the administration, negotiation, and interpretation of Collective Bargaining Agreements. – Working knowledge of relevant Labour Legislation. – Strong oral and written communication skills. – Demonstrated ability to work independently, to set priorities and to balance a demanding workload. – Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships. – Demonstrated ability to use the Microsoft Office Suite. – Possession of valid driver’s licence and a reliable vehicle.

The Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union (COPE), Local 397 is a progressive and professional Union with Members who work at Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI), Service Employees International Union (SEIU-West) in Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and Swift Current, Saskatchewan NDP Provincial and Caucus Offices, Saskatchewan NDP Constituency Assistants, the RM of Alexander, the U of R Faculty Association and our Calgary Unit. We have over 1,600 members in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta.

We are currently seeking a talented and motivated individual for the term position of Union Organizer. This position will be extended as funding is available. This person will be based in Regina.

The Centre for the Study of Education and Work (CSEW) brings together educators from university, union, and community settings to understand and enrich the often-undervalued informal and formal learning of working people. We develop research and teaching programs at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (UofT) that strengthen feminist, anti-racist, labour movement, and working-class perspectives on learning and work.

Our major project is APCOL: Anti-Poverty Community Organizing and Learning. This five-year project (2009-2013), funded by SSHRC-CURA, brings academics and activists together in a collaborative effort to evaluate how organizations approach issues and campaigns and use popular education. For more information about this project, visit http://www.apcol.ca

A collection of information discovery journeys.
Andrew Walsh & Emma Coonan
A call for chapter submissions for an anarcho-narrative book about Information Discovery Journeys.
Full details on http://innovativelibraries.org.uk/onlyconnect/

Learning is about creating relationships between entities and establishing a narrative that makes sense of the world

Research is about juxtaposing entities that were previously unrelated

The book will consist of a series of narratives connected by the over arching theme of information discovery journeys. The authors of the individual chapters are free to decide the most appropriate structure to tell these stories about information discovery, whether that is traditional textual formats, more free form text (e.g. transcripts of social media interactions; poetry; illustrative fictional prose), through images, video, or whatever media seems appropriate to the author.

Contributors will be selected by the editors after submitting a proposal to the call for papers. Final submissions will be subject to the lightest possible editing, in conjunction with the author, to insure the integrity of the original submission is maintained.

Include the topics you would cover, the structure your chapter would take and any special format or structure your contribution would require. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Timescales:
Call for Papers ends 1st March
First Drafts due 1st June
Book published Autumn 2013

Bypassing established publisher routes means that our ‘unbook’ can be:
* Creative Commons licensed, giving contributors recognition and making the material immediately free and sharable online
* Multimedia – contributors pick their preferred format: prose, video, images, Storify’d tweets, graphs, data … (print-on-demand an option for textual parts, linking to additional non-textual material via an app such as Aurasma. Details of this to be confirmed at a later date.)
* Free of the writing conventions imposed by traditional publishers – contributors can retain their own voice, choose the length of their contribution, use whatever format they prefer

Note on licensing: We will ask authors / contributors to sign a simple agreement to allow us rights to publish their contribution and to permit others to use the contents of the book under CC licence http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. Contributors will retain copyright over their work.
Regards
AndrewAndrew Walsh MSc MCLIP FHEA
Academic Librarian, University Teaching Fellow, National Teaching Fellow
Music, Humanities, Media, Education and Professional Development.
Information Literacy Practitioner of the Year, 2012